


A Goosey Adventure!

by MalpaisQuanta



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - The Soulmate Goose of Enforcement, F/M, Minor Mercedes von Martritz/Dedue Molinaro, sorta crack?, using Gilbert's real name here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28160298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalpaisQuanta/pseuds/MalpaisQuanta
Summary: Soulmate AU where one person finds a goose who leads them to the other person, the difficulty comes in not being mauled by the goose.Or in this case, the soulmates have been living together as roommates, Annette's pining for Ashe, Ashe's secretly pining for Annette but wants to help her get the goose back to her father and the goose is trying to help them realise they are soulmates. Have you ever read about two people being forced to share a bed because a goose is hogging the other bed?Well, you're in luck.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert
Comments: 25
Kudos: 25
Collections: Discord Community Archive





	A Goosey Adventure!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you have a high tolerance for absurdity, because this is probably the wackiest thing I've done in a long while.

The kitchen was a hot and busy environment to work in. Orders coming in, orders going out, cooking everything to perfect so he didn’t show up Dedue or Mercedes. Ashe had gotten used to working in such hectic conditions, it was why he’d taken this job instead of staying in Gaspard. Well, that and something else.

Never had Ashe seen a live goose wandering around the kitchen before. Geese weren’t something they served here, for one. For another, live animals in the kitchen were not permitted. Ever. Dirty paws spread diseases to food, could cause customers to fall ill, that would reflect badly on Dedue. And Dedue had enough to deal with already.

So Ashe froze up. The goose stared at him back, before turning around to waddle further into the kitchen.

“No!”

Ashe snapped out of it and ran towards the geese, quickly scooping it up and ducking out of the kitchen- running right into Dedue.

“Is something the matter, Ashe?” Dedue spoke calmly, yet with authority. His eyebrow rose up a notch when he saw the goose in Ashe’s arms. “Is that a goose?”

“Yes, it is! I-I don’t know where it came from, so I was taking it out of the kitchen.” Contrary to the stories he’d heard about geese, this one wasn’t honking and trying to fight back against him holding it. Rather, it was oddly relaxed, as though it didn’t mind the current predicament it was in.

“Very well. Please make sure it doesn’t come back into the kitchen.”

“I will. Sorry, chef.” Ashe quickly ducked past Dedue, clutching the goose close as he ducked around a few alleyways until he reached the door to his apartment block. Thankfully, the door was open, so he just had to run up the stairs to his own apartment.

Annette was there, stepping out of their apartment. “Annette!” he called out, before holding the goose out to her. "Annette, could you hide this goose in my room until my shift's done?"

“Hide what now?” To her credit, Annette’s confusion cleared up incredibly quickly when the goose let out a triumphant honk, right at her face. “Oh! Ashe, why do you have a goose?”

“It wandered into the kitchen while I was working. I don’t know where it came from.”

“But wouldn’t it be happier outside than locked in a room?”

The goose let out an indignant squawk.

“It would, but I’m worried about it getting hurt or going back into the kitchen if I leave it outside.” Geese inside Fhirdiad were rare due to the colder climate compared to Gaspard or Remire, where they usually lived. Ashe didn’t know where this one had come from, but he couldn’t leave it outside in the bitter cold. “Please, Annette. My shift’s over in an hour, I promise.”

“Alright, Ashe.” She took the goose from him, goosebumps (heh) erupting on his hands from her touch despite the gloves she wore. “You should get back to work.”

“Right! Thank you, Annette!”

Ashe dashed back down the stairs, taking them two at a time. He sanitised his hands with the hand sanitiser he kept on him as he arrived back in the kitchen, dodging around Flayn as he returned to his station. Dedue nodded to him as he took back over, and Ashe returned to work, back to balancing the orders they’d all been given.

* * *

“Huh.”

“Is something wrong?”

“This goose has a marking on it.”

Annette looked up from the computer she’d been working on. “A marking? What do you mean?” She placed the computer back onto the table and walked over to where Ashe was sitting with the goose.

“Look.” He held up the goose, who was still oddly compliant with doing whatever Ashe was doing. “There’s markings on both of its wings.”

“I’ve seen those before.”

“You have?” Ashe looked up at her hopefully, and Annette quickly turned away from him, lest she lose herself in his eyes again. She walked over to the bookshelf and quickly flicked through them, muttering to herself as he turned his attention back to the goose in his hands

It was smaller than the ones he had seen back home. A lot nicer, too. It hadn’t hissed at him; it hadn’t attacked him or Annette. It had to belong to someone, right? But who’d be able to raise geese around here?

Marianne was raising horses with Dimitri, but she had mentioned recently wanting to adopt more animals. Mercedes was always at the pond with Dedue and the children from the local school, maybe they’d secretly adopted a goose? Dedue hadn’t recognised the goose though, so maybe not.

“Here.” Annette was holding-not a book, a photo. It was her, her father and her mother, outside their home back in Dominic. “It’s the crest of Dominic.”

“It flew all the way from Dominic?” Ashe looked back at the markings on the fowl’s feathers again. Sure enough, they resembled the symbol of Annette’s hometown. “It must be tired.”

“Father used to mark his like that. There’s a spell he used.” A sigil formed in her hand as she swept it over the goose’s feathers. “It doesn’t seem to be responding, but he might have used a new one.”

“What’s one of your father’s geese doing out here in Fhirdiad?” The goose looked between them both, before turning its attention to cleaning its feathers. “Wouldn’t it have gone somewhere warmer?”

“Maybe it got lost?” Even Annette looked like she didn’t believe that idea. “But I should take it back to him.”

“I’ll go with you.” Ashe stood up, the goose letting out a surprised honk as he lifted it up with him. “I found it; I should help get it back to your father.”

“Don’t you have shifts at Dedue’s for the next few days?” The eager light in his eyes dimmed , and a pang of guilt shot through Annette for being responsible for it. “I don’t have teachers to sub for this week, I’ll take the goose back to Dominic.”

The goose did not like that at all.

“H-Hey! Calm down! Please calm down, I’ll put you back down!”

The goose flung itself out of Ashe’s hands and landed on the ground, angrily honking at Annette as though her suggestion had greatly offended her, before furiously waddling around Ashe and Annette, honking all the while. Was it hungry? Did it want to leave-no it did not want to leave, it chased Annette away from the door and started hissing at her. Not wanting to leave.

“…maybe Dedue can swap me out early?”

The goose calmed back down. Annette and Ashe shared a look as the goose leapt onto a chair, looking at them expectantly.

Expecting… what, though?

* * *

“Oh, um. Dedue?”

Dedue looked away from where Flayn was currently putting away food for tonight’s dinner rush to see Ashe standing before him, hands hidden meekly behind him. “Ashe. Is something wrong?” he asked.

“Well, um…” Ashe seemed determined to avoid his eyes. That was concerning to Dedue, so he decided to cut to the chase.

“Does it involve the goose?”

“Yes!” Ashe brightened slightly, but then went back to fidgeting with his hoodie strings. 

“Annette thinks it belongs to her dad, so she wants to take it back to him, but he lives in Dominic and the goose wasn’t too happy about the idea of her going on her own with it, so-“

“How do you know it belongs to her dad?”

“It has the markings of her hometown on it.”

“Would you be able to show me the goose?” Ashe looked surprised at his request. “I was not aware that Sir Gustave raised geese. Perhaps you and Annette are mistaking those markings for something else?

Mercedes stood up from behind the counter. Her interest had been piqued by this discussion, it seemed.

“Of course! I’ll be right back!” Ashe ran back out the restaurant’s doors, leaving them swinging in his haste.

“A goose with the markings of Annie’s hometown?” Mercedes walked around the counter, helping Flayn back down from the step ladder as she went. “We’ve seen something like that before, haven’t we?”

“We have.” Dedue smiled. A rare sight, and one that drew Flayn’s attention as Ashe came back through the doors, goose in hand.

“Here! Look, on the wings!”

The goose obligingly stretched out its wings for Dedue to inspect. Ashe was right, it was indeed the symbol of Annette’s hometown.

He’d missed something on the markings, though. It was difficult to keep his face neutral as Dedue prepared to lie to Ashe. “Those are the markings of Dominic. You are sure the goose belongs to Annette’s dad?”

“I’m sure. And she’s sure. So, um, I’d like to ask for the next four days off so-“

“Granted.”

If lying had been difficult already, it was even harder to not smile at how shocked Ashe looked. “Are you sure? I know the restaurant can get rather busy at night, I don’t mind finishing off my remaining shifts before-“

“No. I will find someone to cover them. Ashe, you may go with Annette to return the goose to her dad.”

“Thank you so much, Dedue!” The goose honked happily at him too, and Dedue really had to fight to keep the smile off his face. “I promise I won’t ask for this again!”

“You are welcome. But you should be going, this weather is not ideal for a goose.”

“Right. Thank you again, Dedue!” Once more, Ashe darted out of the restaurant, goose in hand. Dedue waited for the doors to stop swinging before turning to Mercedes and Flayn, his smile returning once more.

“Was that not a soulmate goose?” Flayn asked excitedly. Dedue nodded. “Ashe has a soulmate goose! Then Annette must be his soulmate!”

“It would seem so.” Dedue and Mercedes looked over at the portrait of the goose – Mercedes’ soulmate goose, patterned with the markings of Dedue’s hometown – that was proudly on show behind the counter. “I am curious if Annette truly does not know what that goose is.”

“She might.” Mercedes tapped her chin in thought. “She loves the story about how we met, but she might not think Ashe is her soulmate.”

“But Ashe likes her, much like how she likes him, does he not?” Flayn was enjoying this. Dedue could see the huge smile she wore from the corner of his eye.

“He does.” Neither of them could take their eyes off one another when they were in the same room. Dedue could honestly not explain how they were roommates, yet they still hadn’t gotten together.

Or Annette had, and was doing this to get Ashe to realise how he felt. Even though they only ever looked at each other if they were going out somewhere. But it was the goose’s problem to figure that out.

Dedue returned to the kitchen, preparing to call one of the other chefs he had on rotation.

* * *

“I’ll drive.”

“No, I’ll drive. I know where Dominic is.”

“Great! You can use the map to direct us there.”

“But it would be easier if I drove us there first.”

Somehow, preparing to leave for Dominic triggered a staring contest between Annette and Ashe. One wanted to drive, the other wanted to drive. Such was the cause of many playful arguments between them.

“You can drive tomorrow, Annette.” The goose was already sat in the back of the car, so Ashe didn’t need to figure out how to look serious while holding the fowl. “I can drive today. Maybe you can find a motel for us to stay in while we’re driving?”

“But you could do that just as easily.” Annette was stubborn. She wanted to drive first! “I know a quicker way out of Fhirdiad.”

“But you could point out the way I should go. Then you can drive into Dominic tomorrow!”

Their staring contest continued. Even as they tried to make the other blink, Annette’s frown threatened to turn into a pout, and Ashe’s smile threatened to turn into a frown. Both seemed right on the cusp of breaking, of being willing to give in to the pressure and let the other go first. Ashe wanted to drive first. So did Annette. The goose lost interest and started preening its feathers again.

Annette broke. “Okay, fine, you can drive first.”

Ashe grinned in that way that made her heart flip. “Thanks, Annette.”

Then a mischievous thought occurred to her as Ashe opened the passenger door to let her into the car. Traffic would take a while to clear, so…

“Come on, Annette.” Ashe stood beside the car door, waiting for her. “Let’s go.”

"Nope!" Annette playfully slammed the car door shut. “The traffic is too bad now. We should wait.”

“But if we wait now, it’ll be even later by the time we reach a motel.” Ashe opened it again. "I don’t want to drive on black ice."

"But I’ll be driving in the morning.” Annette slammed it shut again, ignoring the goose's annoyed honk from the back of the car. “So you won’t need to worry about the ice."

Ashe caught on to what she was doing, and a playful twinkle appeared in his eye and he opened the door again. "Annette, will you-"

"Hey!"

And that's how Annette ended up pouting at Ashe as they drove out of their neighbourhood.

(Even if she didn't mind him picking her up bridal style to put her in the car)

Eventually, she got bored of pouting ineffectually at him, and turned her attention to the glove compartment. They’d kept some cassette tapes in the car. Ashe’s car was an old one, came with a cassette player instead of a CD player. It was fortunate that the local shops still had some cassettes in stock so they could listen to music as they drove. She busied herself flipping through the ones they’d brought along with them.

“Which way do I go?”

“Hmm?” Annette looked up from the cassettes to see Ashe holding out the roadmap. “Oh! Sorry.” She quickly took the roadmap from him and opened it up, finding where they were and looking at the nearby roads.

“So if we take a right here, that’ll bring us near the highway. Then we just need to get onto the highway.”

“Okay, how do we do that? Do we take Seventh?”

"No.” Annette quickly scanned the map. “Traction Avenue."

"Won’t that take us downtown? I thought we wanted to leave Fhirdiad.” Ashe turned on the blinkers. “I'm going to take Seventh."

Annette turned the blinkers back off. "No, don't take Seventh!"

"But if we take Traction, that will take us downtown."

"Traction gets us onto the highway faster. From there, it's quicker to get us on the road to Dominic."

"Okay...” Ashe put the blinkers back on as the sign for Traction Avenue came up. “But Seventh would be quicker than Traction."

Too late, Annette had already turned her attention back to the cassettes. She quickly dug one out and slotted it in, crossing her fingers that the cassette player wouldn’t give up on them before they could get back from Dominic.

Mercifully, it held up, and a song started to play through the speakers as Ashe took them onto the highway.

“Goofy Movie?”

“Of course!” Annette and Ashe both grinned at each other before starting to sing along.

“Do you need a break from modern living?”

* * *

By the time it was too dark for them to see beyond the car windows, Annette had found a motel for them to stay in. It had only one room left available to them. Such is the way motels work, when a pair of adults arrive asking desperately if they still have a room available.

The room itself was nothing to write home about. Dusty windowsill, TV looked slightly cracked. There was a spider crouched in the corner of their bathroom, which watched Ashe closely until he left, hurrying back into the motel room. At least it had two beds for them to sleep in.

“It’s not eating anything.”

“Who? The goose?” Ashe walked over to where Annette was crouched in front of the goose. Sure enough, it was refusing the food she was holding out to it. Ashe took some food from her to hold out to the goose as well.

The goose refused both, even seemingly shaking its head at them at one point. They shared a bewildered look. How could it not be hungry after being stuck in the back of the car for the last few hours?

Instead, it waddled around them both, and flew ever so briefly, just long enough to propel itself up and onto the bed, before turning to them both and settling down. Perhaps it was tired? While they were glad the goose was alright, this presented them with another problem.

With the goose occupying one bed, there was only the other bed left for them.

“Uh.”

“Um.”

“Maybe we can move the goose onto the couch?”

The goose did not take kindly to Ashe’s attempt to move it.

“Ow!”

Ashe jerked his hand away from the goose, Annette quickly took hold of it, looking it over to make sure it was fine. The sudden physical handholding (gasp!) made the tips of his ears burn, and rather than face Annette, Ashe chose instead to pointedly glare at the offending fowl, who just hissed at him back. As it was a goose, and it was mightily annoyed at them both.

“Nasty goose. Why did you nip Ashe?” Annette spoke to it like it was a baby, and that just invited more hissing from it, so Ashe wisely decided to step back and pulled Annette away from the now angry goose with him.

“It’s alright, Annette. I’ll sleep on the couch. You can take the bed.”

“No. You take the bed; you’ve been driving all day.”

“You’ll be driving tomorrow, though. You should sleep on the bed.”

“Ashe.”

“Annette.”

Playful as it was, they were both stubborn and soon got into yet another staring contest to see who’d blink and give the other the bed first. A dangerous game when you thought the other person had beautiful eyes. Both of them had the same thought, both blushed, but. Annette broke first. Again.

“If it’s not comfortable for you, tell me and we can switch, okay?”

“I will. Now please, take the bed.”

Annette settled down on the bed first, watching forlornly as Ashe started shifting the couch cushions around to make it as comfortable as possible for him to sleep on. She turned her attention to the goose, who’d caused this stupid dilemma, and fixed it with her meanest glare.

The goose ignored her. It let out a honk, and then she heard the couch break.

“Ashe?” Annette quickly turned around to look where the dull thud had come from. Ashe had accidentally pushed a cushion through the couch! “What happened? Are you alright?” She asked as she sat up.

“Yeah, I’m alright.” Ashe quickly pulled himself out of it and brushed his hands off. “I guess we can’t sleep on this couch anymore.” He turned his attention back to the goose, who had already stretched out its neck and started hissing again-

“Share this bed with me, Ashe. Please.” A heartbeat passed, and Ashe started looking away from her. It wasn’t like she didn’t also look away from him because while it was better than him sleeping on the floor, she still had to share a bed with him. “It’ll be fine!”

“A-Are you sure, Annette? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Many thoughts ran through her head in answer. We’ve lived together this long. You don’t make me uncomfortable. I don’t mind if it’s you. That last one made her cheeks burn, but she focussed herself.

“I’m sure, Ashe.”

The goose watched as Annette shifted over to face the wall, giving Ashe room to lie down on the bed. Feeling merciful, it picked up the nearby pillow and flung it at them, before settling down into its feathers for the night.

Ashe caught the pillow and settled down onto the bed, trying not to think too hard about who he was sharing the bed with. This was fine, they were roommates, they were friends. This was fine.

This was totally fine.

* * *

It was totally fine for the goose. It got a good night’s sleep.

Then it woke up to the sight of the two humans it’d been assigned to snuggled up to one another in the bed. The girl, Annette, had been cold, and had wrapped herself around the boy for warmth. It raised its head, and it could see she was smiling. So was Ashe.

If it could sigh, the goose would have. Because as comfortable and happy as they were, they needed to get going.

So it rudely woke them, and the entire motel up by honking as loud as it could, which was really, really loudly. Annette groggily peeked over Ashe’s head to see what all the noise was about, then went back to snuggling him sleepily. As far as humans behaved, it was adorable. And a sign that at least one of them was aware of how they truly felt.

Some pairs of soulmates could be particularly dense about the process. These two? Not so much.

Ashe cracked an eye open, then cautiously reached to figure out what was wrapped around him. When he identified it as Annette’s arm, he relaxed, if only slightly.

Then he realised he was snuggled up to the girl he liked and reacted accordingly, and then Annette “woke up” and “acted” accordingly, like she hadn’t tried to go back to cuddling him when she woke up. Silly human.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realise-“

“No its fine, I’m sorry, we shouldn’t have shared-“

“No, it’s not your fault, I’m really sorry Ashe-“

“No, no, it’s okay Annette, you were cold, and we had one-“

“But I was the one who wanted to take the goose back, if we hadn’t-“

“It’s alright-“

“No, really-“

But everyone was up, and they were on their way again, even if things seemed awkward between the two humans.

The goose didn’t pay them any mind. Something had gotten stuck in its feathers and it was far more irritating than anything these two did. Blasted humans, their beds were not goose friendly!

* * *

“There. That’s my parents’ house.”

The unassuming house before them could easily have been mistaken for any other house in Dominic, if it weren’t for the pair of geese poking their heads up to look out the window at them. Annette didn’t recognise them, perhaps her father had adopted new ones?

The door opened, and a chorus of honks greeted them as Gustave stepped out of the house, flanked by the two geese from the window. “Annette.”

“Father!” Annette ran forward to hug her father, and he returned it with equal warmth. “It’s good to see you. Where is Mother?”

“She had to step out. She will be back before you leave.” He let go of Annette, turning his attention to Ashe, and the goose he was holding. “You must be Ashe. My daughter speaks highly of you.”

“Father.” Annette fixed him with a glare, ears burning red as she did.

“But I must ask, what brings you two here? You mentioned that you wouldn’t be visiting for another month.”

“This goose showed up outside our apartment.” Ashe held up said goose, who honked a greeting to the other geese. “Annette thinks it might be yours.”

“One of mine? It must have flown a long distance to end up in Fhirdiad. May I take a look?”

“Of course!” Ashe quickly walked over to where Gustave and Annette were standing and held the goose out for the older man to inspect.

The goose didn’t react as Gustave took hold of it. He recognised the markings immediately, before passing the goose back to Ashe and gently taking hold of a wing. “Could you?”

The goose stretched out its wings.

Gustave smiled. “Annette.”

“Yes, Father?”

“It is not my goose.” The older man let go of the goose and focussed back on Ashe. “Ashe. You believed this is mine because it has the crest of Dominic?”

“Annette said it might be one of yours.” Though now Annette was refusing to meet his eyes. Ashe felt like he was missing something here. Something obvious.

“I think we may need to talk.”

Something _very_ obvious.

“Annette. I will need to explain this to Ashe. May I borrow him for a while?”

Annette blinked. Then she realised she was being spoken too. “Oh, yes. Sorry. I’ll be… somewhere.”

“Annette?” Too late, she was already leaving in such a hurry that Ashe tried to run after her, only stopping because the goose tried to attack him again.

“She will be fine. I feel like this is something she has been waiting for, for a very long time.” Gustave turned to the door, defusing Ashe’s incoming rant at the goose in his arms. “Come in, Ashe.”

The house was decorated with many different photos. Some were of Gustave, his wife, Annette, the three of them together. Photos of pets. One of Annette graduating from Fhirdiad University. It had been lived in for a very long time.

The two geese on either side of Gustave occasionally stopped to make sure Ashe was still following. As they entered the living room, the geese hopped onto the couch and returned to watching the world go by from the window.

“Sit down.” Ashe did as he was told, taking a seat as Gustave sat across from him. “Annette told you that might be one of my geese?”

“Yes, she did. Is it not? I’m terribly sorry to have bothered you if it isn’t.”

“It isn’t one of mine, no. But that is still an important goose.”

“It is?”

“Indeed.” Gustave pulled a photo from the table next to him, turning it around so Ashe could see it. “Does it look familiar?”

Ashe and the goose both leaned forwards to look at the photo in his hands. It was a goose, but-

“It looks the same as this one!”

“But it isn’t. The initials on the wings are different.”

As if on cue, the goose stretched its wings out for Ashe to inspect, and as he looked closer at the markings, he understood what Gustave meant.

“You’re right. But what are they?

“Those stand for the name of your soulmate.”

“My soulmate?” Gustave nodded. “Then who’s are they?”

“Read them out. Think, Ashe.”

So he did. “A. F. D. AFD.”

A.F.D.

A.F.D.

Oh.

_Ohhhh._

“…Annette.” Now he got it. Now everything made sense. Now he understood! “Annette is my soulmate?”

“I believe so. I believe she’s known for a long time now. The goose was sent to help you realise too.”

“It was?” The goose let out a honk of agreement. “You’ve been trying to help me all along?” Another honk.

And it all made sense. Her touch. How he could never look away from her. How she always could make him happy, even on the bad days.

Gustave recognised the gleam, the look of horror when Ashe realised how long she must have waited and raised a hand to stop his oncoming outburst. “You should tell Annette of your realisation. Right now, she will be at the nearby park.” Right. She’d pointed out a park on their way here. It wasn’t too far from here. “She may not think you feel the same.”

“Right! I’ll go tell her! Thank you so much, Mr Dominic!” Ashe ran out of the living room, remembering to close the door after him, but unfortunately leaving the poor goose behind.

Gustave and the goose shared a look. In its eyes, Gustave recognised the goose’s exasperation over being forgotten.

“Maybe someday, someone will remember.” Gustave stood, and retrieved a camera from a nearby shelf. “Until then, I would like a memento. For me, and for them.

The goose obliged, turning its back to Gustave and stretching out its wings, bringing its crest to bear.

A photo, for another important moment in Annette’s life.

* * *

Annette focussed on the ground under her as she waited.

She’d be right. Goddess, she’d been right. It was a Soulmate Goose, like Mercedes’ goose had been. It had been sent to help Ashe realise how he felt, like how Mercedes’ had led her to Dedue. She’d been right. It wasn’t just her.

He’d felt the same all along, and just hadn’t realised it.

She could cry. She could laugh, she could panic out of fear that the goose was mistaken and that it was meant for someone else in the city. A.F.D? They were her initials, but they could be someone else’s too. Her father understood how the geese worked, not her. He could’ve sent her away because he might have realised who it actually meant!

“Annette!”

She looked up. Ashe was running down the path into the park, having spotted her sitting on the bench.

“Annette. Gustave… said you’d be here.” She moved up so he could sit down and catch his breath. “The goose… isn’t his. It’s-“

“-a Soulmate Goose.” She returned to looking at her feet. She knew the next question to ask, but she didn’t want to, because what if she was right, and it wasn’t her? They’d have to go home, and she’d spend the rest of her time in Fhirdiad watching him talk to someone else, be happy with someone else.

“Annette… the initials are your name!”

“My name?”

“Yes!”

“Are you sure?” She didn’t want to hope and have him be wrong.

“I’m sure. Gustave said so.”

Her father wasn’t wrong when it came to geese. If it did mean her?

“We’re soulmates, Annette!” Ashe sounded so happy, so ecstatic about it. “The goose was supposed to help me realise!”

“We’re soulmates?”

“We are!” Ashe’s grin faded quickly as sobs began to rack Annette’s body. “Wh-what’s wrong? This is great, isn’t it?”

“I-It is.” Annette broke. Try as she might, she couldn’t stop the relief flooding through her, the tears, the sobs. He felt the same. They were soulmates! “I-I couldn’t bear the thought that you… you weren’t it, Ashe. I was so scared…”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay!” Ashe reached out a hand to cover hers, to grip it tightly. “I didn’t know. I wish I had known sooner, but I’m very happy it’s you.”

“R-Really?”

Ashe flashed her one of his beautiful smiles, oh what a fool she must look like, crying over this! “Really!”

“Good. Good. I-I’m really happy it’s you, too.” Annette, with the sobs finally receding, gave him a warm, watery smile of her own.

Overhead, the goose watched. The humans had realised how they felt about each other. The father had a photo for them to remember it by. The goose had done what it had been tasked to do.

It waited on a rooftop, watched Annette and Ashe walk out of the park together, hand in hand. Only when the lovers had left its sight did it take to the skies again. Where was it going?

Who knows? For it is a very helpful goose, bringing two lovers together. But wherever it goes, it goes as a free bird!

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> So there's a Goofy Movie reference in there, a Goofy Movie shout out, plus an Incredibles reference as well. I loved those films.
> 
> Lemme know in the comments what you thought! This was a blast to write, so I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!


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